Early ART-initiation and longer ART duration reduces HIV-1 proviral DNA levels in children from the CHER trial

Table 1 PBMC sample availability

	ART-Def, N or N (%)	ART-40 W, N or N (%)	ART-96 W, N or N (%)	Total, N or N (%)
Number of children
Randomised into the main CHER trial	125	143	143	411
Who died^a	21	14	12	47
Had samples available^a	79	56	94	229
Number of samples available
At week 40			8 (6.5%)	8 (2.4%)
At week 96	44 (29.3%)	–	73 (58.9%)	117 (35.5%)
At week 156	13 (8.7%)	–	–	13 (3.9%)
At week 204	13 (8.7%)	–	–	13 (3.94%)
At week 248	70 (46.7%)	56 (100%)	43 (34.7%)	169 (51.2%)
At week 252	10 (6.7%)	–	–	10 (3.0%)
Total	150	56	124	330

^aReasons for samples not included: to compare HIV-1 proviral DNA levels between early and deferred ART at 96 weeks: 81 ART-Def and 70 ART-96 W samples were not tested because the child had died (21 vs 12), samples were not stored (10 vs 6), was not on ART (5 vs 0), or was on ART but not virally suppressed or insufficient evidence of being virally suppressed i.e., < 2 plasma samples of < 400 copies/ml of HIV-1 RNA 12–24 weeks apart (45 vs 54). To compare HIV-1 proviral DNA levels across all three arms at 248 weeks: 55 ART-Def, 87 ART-40 W and 100 ART-96 W samples were not analysed because the child had died (21 vs 14 vs 12), was not on ART (0 vs 29 vs 45), was on ART but not virally suppressed (4 vs 12 vs 4), samples were not stored (30 vs 23 vs 14), or the child did not adhere to CHER ART-strategy i.e. did not interrupt ART when scheduled (0 vs 9 vs 25)

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